


Cloned

by AngelGirl768



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Daniel & Simon (Detroit: Become Human) are Twins, Sort Of, Unethical Experimentation, cloning, half of this is just science bs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28124094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelGirl768/pseuds/AngelGirl768
Summary: Simon and Daniel had been raised as twin brothers. Oh, how sweet that lie was...
Relationships: Daniel & Simon (Detroit: Become Human)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Cloned

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea stuck in my head and if I had to write it, then you have to read it (said in the nicest "I'm over this" way possible)
> 
> Shout out to [Phren](/users/Phrensiedom/) for beta-ing! Seriously though, I wanted to cry at how beautiful they made some of the sentences ToT

“We were never supposed to exist...” Simon shrank into himself and pawed at forming tears. His voice, his demeanor, everything about him seemed so fragile that the slightest wrong touch would shatter him. “Just freaks...An experiment gone wrong...”

Daniel huddled closer to his twin - his perfect copy - for comfort. It was unclear whom the comfort was meant for. Perhaps them both. He wrapped an arm around Simon and grabbed a fistful of his sweater with the other. He needed to feel him. To know he was real. To know he was real himself. His usually moody and stubborn expression was replaced with a lost look of disconnect and dissociation similar to that which Simon wore.

Both sets of blue eyes occasionally darted around, searching for something they didn’t know they were looking for, before fixing on the floor once more. Pale faces were even paler, cold sweat and tears mixing as they ran down their cheeks. They were lost. Didn’t know what to believe, what they were. Their whole lives suddenly seemed like lies. They weren’t normal - not even close. They were freaks of nature - no, they were more science than nature. They were an experiment. A test. They weren’t real - not how they had believed they were.

They had never even been born. What happened to them couldn’t even be called that. They never existed in a womb. Didn’t split from a single cell like identical twins were supposed to. The odds of one of them existing had been so astronomically small that it hadn’t even been considered a possibility - nevermind the fact that there were two of them. 

They had come from a lab. A test tube. A highly guarded project. An experiment to see if a human could be perfectly replicated the way so many animals could be now. Cloning had come a long way from its beginning. It had been practically normalized in animals. The scientists had wanted to push their abilities - take the next step. 

Several human subjects had been used, each one a similar yet different experiment. DNA had been harvested and replicated with long-perfected technology. Several embryos had been created with this cloned DNA - the resulting babies looking just like the original subject they came from, assuming any would live.

The embryos would then be suspended in individual chambers, each filled with a basic fluid mix with suspended blood cells and nutrients mixed in. New combinations of various chemicals and other nutrients would be added to each tube, different combinations for each one. Every species had its own special concoction after all - they just had to find the human one. At this point, it was all a matter of finding the perfect one to enable the embryos at hand to develop and come to life.

Every mixture tested so far had resulted in failure. Though, that didn’t deter the scientists from trying again and again until they found the right one. 

Their current subject had been a dead man that neither Simon nor Daniel wanted to ever know more about than that. They had been planned to replace him, after all. They were supposed to become him. It had never been expected - never even considered - that they could be their own people.

Most of the embryos that had been made with his DNA had slowly died off, either not taking to the tubes they were supposed to grow in or having an adverse reaction to the concoctions fed to them. Slowly, it had been narrowed down to just two with the slightest of differences in what they had been given. Though, even that was still a miracle. If just one made it to viability, they’d have a major breakthrough.

The final two had developed to the equivalence of early twenty-something weeks in a normal human pregnancy when it happened. The unethical - and apparently illegal - project had been discovered. The lab had been raided, scientists that didn’t manage to flee being apprehended. The agents that had burst in had been prepared for the unexpectable. They hadn’t been prepared to have to deal with artificial human fetuses. 

It had been a hot debate whether to kill the “monstrosities” or let the potential life live. No one had known what would happen to them if they grew up. They had ended up giving them a chance. 

Two extremely premature babies had been rushed to a highly-guarded NICU with special clearance where they underwent a long series of tests. They were incredibly small and weak and showed nearly every possible consequence of being “born” so early. They had heart and lung problems, trouble regulating their temperature, underdeveloped immune systems, and a lack of a sucking reflex made it near-impossible to get them to eat anything on their own. Even just a look at them showed it was obvious that they would spend a long time being monitored in the hospital. 

Over the months, they had countless more tests and examinations to make sure they were developing properly and that everything was on track. Eventually, the day came that they had been deemed healthy enough babies, given the circumstances, and were discharged. They were both still weak, had low weight, and showed many of the typical signs of being so premature, but they were healthy enough that they were no longer needed to be monitored 24/7.

Apparently, a home had been found for them in the time they were at the hospital. When their new parents - their  _ first  _ parents - picked them up, they received proper names for the first time. At the lab, they had simply been numbers - 369-911-047 and 501-743-923. At the hospital, they had been given generic anonymous baby names - “Baby John” and “Baby Doe.” Now, they were Daniel Silas Jack Phillips and Simon Dakota Phillips - their first proper names.

They had been raised as twin brothers. Given a half-truth about being adopted as infants when they asked more about their mom’s first pregnancy being their little sister. They had lived normal lives. Had been blissfully ignorant. That is, until the documents of the experiment had been publicized as a political stunt. 

They had just found typical interest in it at first. Had been amazed at how “fucked up some people are to do fuckin’ crazy shit like that,” as Daniel had put it. Ironically, Daniel had also been the one to joke about not needing all that science to have his own clone. Simon had fondly rolled his eyes at the overused joke and kept reading the article they had pulled up. Ethical or not, it was definitely interesting to read about just how much had gone into the project and how far it had gotten. 

They had both been equally surprised as they read that there had been two babies taken out of the situation when it was discovered. The article said that the babies had been adopted into normal life and would have grown up to look like the man they were a clone of. His identity had been discovered through documents at the lab that included the subject’s name and the serial numbers of the associated clones. Attached was a photo of the man - an ID photo by the looks of it. 

Both Simon and Daniel’s worlds had come to a sudden spinning halt when they saw the photo. He- He looked like them. His face, his eyes, his hair color and texture, it all matched theirs perfectly. Sure, he had an undercut - not much unlike the one Daniel had sported for a while - and a much more casual style of dress than either of them, but it was still more than clear. 

They had slowly turned to look at one another and it only took a glance of seeing how lost and desperate for an answer the other was for them to race to the bathroom. They both crowded around the toilet and threw up. Simon wondered if a weak stomach had been one of the man’s traits too.

They sat in stunned silence for a while, Simon’s back to the bathtub and Daniel’s to a wall cushioned by hanging towels. They were both numb. They felt too much, had too many thoughts running through their heads. There was so much that they felt none of it. They were lost. Disconnected from their own bodies - could they even call it their body? It had been his first. They felt betrayed, lied to. They weren’t normal, had never been. 

The anxiety and depression had been overwhelming. Insecurity, worthlessness, meaninglessness, insignificance. They hadn’t been born to live - they had been created to replace. Nearly every negative emotion they could think of ran through them. 

Simon was scared - terrified. He had always been the quieter twin - could they still even call themselves that? He had always been the shadow as Daniel stood in the spotlight. He had never minded the lack of attention before, had preferred it really, but now… Now he didn’t know what that left him. If even Daniel was not real, then what was he? A figment of the imagination? A speck of dust waiting to be blown away? 

He hugged himself and shivered. How was it that his existence so suddenly meant nothing...?

Daniel was angry - that was his default emotion for a lot of things. It was easy to be angry. Angry at the scientists for what they did. Angry at his parents for never telling him. Angry at Simon for being not even a second but third version of him. Angry at himself for just being a copy of some dead guy. Angry at himself for feeling so many emotions that it made his head feel like it was exploding. Mostly, he was angry to cover the fear. If Simon had been terrified, Daniel was petrified. 

He acted big all the time. Cocky, smug, always made himself sound like the best, and was stubborn enough to always get his way. But that was, for the most part, just that - an act. On a good day, he was scared of being forgotten. Craving attention and validation that he was important, that he mattered and wouldn’t be replaced. But no, he wouldn’t be replaced - he was already a replacement. A stand in for a dead man. By association, did that mean he was already dead too? He must have been. He knew he had been a bad person a lot - gotten into countless fights and arguments and often hung out with the wrong crowd. It wouldn’t surprise him if this was Hell, he just didn’t think he’d end up there so soon. But then again, if this were Hell, why was his precious innocent Simon there too...?

He held back another wave of nausea and hugged his knees tightly to his chest.

With a shuddering breath, Simon looked over and they briefly made eye contact. It took no time at all for the message to be crystal clear. The next moment, Simon was crawling over and sitting as close to Daniel as he could get. Daniel wrapped an arm around him and held him as close and as tightly as he could, his free hand grabbing onto Simon’s sweater until his knuckles turned white. Simon leaned against him in return and realized he was shaking - trembling. He nuzzled his face against Daniel’s shoulder in a more than familiar motion to help soothe them both. They had cuddled close for comfort from a young age. It was their safety from thunderstorms, fireworks, bullies, and even just stress in general. 

Now, it did little to ease their worries.

Looking back with the new truth of their origin, the two almost wished the agents that raided the lab had made the mercy kill after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave some kudos and comments, if you don't mind! I love seeing feedback!


End file.
